AC trip report

[d10]

First time to AC. My friend was getting a free trip through his job and I met him up there on Saturday night. I got in at about 6pm and went to the Borgata. The waiting list was huge so I signed up for everything 10/20 limit and below, then went to find some food. I was #62 in line for 10/20 when I went to go eat. I went to the buffet because it was the first place I found. It was very good, but probably not $30 good, and from what I understand the comps for poker are practically nonexistant. I miss Tunica. After eating I went back to check on my waiting list and in the past hour I had moved up to #58. I killed some time around there, checked out the WPT action, and about 2 hours later I was #48, so I left and went to the Taj.

I get there and I'm pretty impressed by the room. It's poker tables as far as I could see, and just about all of them were full. I don't know if that's because of the USPC or it's always like that, but I've never seen so many poker tables before. I signed up for 10/20 and sat right down at a table that was just starting up. There were only about 5 guys there which I thought was great. I've only been playing 6-max tables online lately so I was looking forward to getting started but I was the only one who felt that way. I asked the floor to start with a reduced rake and they said we could play for no rake at all, but these guys still didn't want to play. What a waste of a great opportunity. I called my friend to see that he had made it in and was headed to his room at Caesars, so I left the Taj to meet up with him. I had yet to play a hand of poker.

It's past midnight at this point and I'm getting charged $5 every time I move my car out of a parking garage so we decide to check out the poker room at Caesars. It's not very impressive, and is only spreading 2/4 and 3/6, but it's open seating. My friend had never played beyond home games, and had never played at all with limits and blinds, so I explained enough to make sure he doesn't look like an idiot and we both get into a 2/4 game. He proceeds to ignore all of the basic but essential strategy I gave him and gets lucky flopping a full house after he cold called my raise with Q9o. I'm not getting any luck myself, mostly folding a lot. We play for about 4 hours before my friend busts out and I leave -$21. I heard that their poker room is brand new and it's noticable. A lot of the dealers seemed a bit inexperienced with poker. There was usually a lot of confusion when a blind leaves the table, with some people skipping blinds and others paying twice in a row.

On Sunday I head over to the Tropicana at about noon and get into the 6/12 game just as it's starting up. My luck is going the same as the day before, playing for hours and not really making any progress. At some point they call for a 10/20 game, but only 4 people show up and it never gets started. A bit later they start a 7.50/15 game and half the table leaves for that, but I stay. The rake is reduced to $1/pot and fortunately the 4 other guys left still wanted to keep playing. Over the course of about 30 minutes I go from around -$100 to +$100. It really wasn't fair and I almost felt guilty about it, cause these guys did not know how to adjust at all for a short table. At first they were a bit upset that I was raising half the pots but then some of them caught on that it was a good strategy, so started getting aggressive themselves but at all the wrong times. It was great while it lasted but then our table started filling up again, and my cards are still running pretty cold and I end up back down where I started the day at. There's an open seat at the pink chip game so I move over there since my table image at the 6/12 is shot at this point.

The cards start finally going my way at the pink chip game. I hit a few flushes and sets and win some nice pots. I won a huge pot when I flopped a set vs someone else's two pair vs another guy's flush draw vs 2 other guy's top pair with the same kickers. On the river I'm trying to dodge about 80% of the deck, and the card that comes out gives the 2 guys with top pair 2-pair. So I bet out and I'm a bit worried when I get 3 callers on the end but MHIG. I leave the game around 9pm (I think) trying to meet back up with my friend but he's at some event his job is putting on making like almost $2k with 0 risk so I let him stay there.

I go back to the Borgata hoping it would be less packed than it was the night before, and it was. I sit right down into a 10/20 game and play for about an hour. The game wasn't great, lots of tight/aggressive players. The place was really nice though. It was the most comfortable chair I've ever played in and the dealers were all quick and professional. I had a good hour though so I left with a nice profit.

I get back to Caesars at about midnight trying to get back together with my friend, but my cell phone had died and I hadn't brought a charger so that was a bit difficult. I was tired and ready to sleep but he had the keys to the room and wasn't in, so I leave a message there and wait for him at the Caesar's poker room. The games going are the same as the night before and I get into the 3/6 game after a short wait. Nothing really special happens there, but I'm still running good and turn my $100 into $213 by the time my friend shows up. There was a guy who sat down with a nice looking girl watching behind him. I flopped top set on him once and he raised my bet, I had a few options but I opted for the call/cr any turn card mostly because I thought it would be absolutely hilarious to make him look like an idiot in front of his girl. It works well. A bit later I had K9 on a board of TJQx8. I was almost sure nobody had AK but since my buddy was in the hand, I checked just hoping he would bet. Sure enough he does with a lone 9 and I CR him again. After that he takes the rest of his chips and leaves. That made the trip all worth it, the $630 in profit was just a bonus.